Heart of the Lotus

This embossed image of an open lotus flower adorns a handmade paper card from my childhood friend who recently came from a month-long research trip to India and Tibet.

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And this is my poem "Dear heart, I take up my tasks again:" which was posted on Dave Bonta's Via Negativa:


Dear heart, I take up my tasks again:

rising in the morning to turn off the alarm
--from the old French A l'arme, meaning to
the arms, though I have hardly any weapons
but these limbs, once burnished and nearly
lovely in their prime; my wits (still for the most
part, gratefully, intact); and this all too common
yearning for ease and rest, pleasure and kind words...
Listen to the small feathered body singing in the dark,
its faltering lyric familiar as the prayer I'll don
as armor for the day: oh faith, oh love, oh courage.

Luisa A. Igloria
04 27 2011